Year-Round Schools Likely in Garden Grove

Year-round schools became the probable solution to reducing class sizes in many Garden Grove elementary schools, after a controversial plan to divide campuses by grade level was rejected Tuesday night.

Hundreds of parents and teachers turned out at the Garden Grove Unified School District board of education meeting to oppose the so-called “triad” plan. It was intended to reduce class sizes and accommodate increased enrollment by creating four clusters of three schools each. In each cluster, two schools would have kindergarten through third grades and one school would have fourth through sixth grades.

In unanimously rejecting the plan, board members agreed that year-round schedules would be probable in schools with 700 or more students beginning in 1998. But they established a committee to examine all available options.

“We need to go ahead with year-round schooling in some areas, We need to take the bull by the horns,” said board member Kenneth H. Slimmer. The year-round recommendation applies to all overcrowded elementary schools, not just those that had been talked about for the triad plan.

The year-round schedules are needed to help the district reduce class sizes in the third grade in 1998. The board made a commitment to limit class sizes in the second grades to 20 students per classroom beginning in the fall. All 43 elementary schools currently have no more than 20 students per class in the first grades.

Michael Salgado, president of Parents Against Gang Environments and an opponent of the triad plan, said, “Year-round education will have lots of complaints, but lots of people in the triad areas would rather suffer with the year-round than suffer with the triads.”

Parents have expressed concern that the plan would compromise children’s safety by forcing them to cross busy streets and walk near intermediate and high schools. Parents also objected to separating younger children from their older siblings if schools were divided by grade.